Music

The Music Department in St Catherine’s College, Armagh, is a vibrant and active Department. Classroom activities involve focus on listening, performance and improvisational as well as compositional and creative skills. All year groups experience the use of music technology.

Within the Department there are the Main and Chamber Choirs, Junior and Senior Traditional Groups as well as Orchestra and Brass Group. All of these ensembles perform at our three concerts staged throughout the academic year which include Christmas Concert, Spring Concert for more senior and examination students and a Year 8 end of year concert. There is a focus on performing skills and pupils are encouraged to perform music with an emphasis on how they can express themselves through music.

All pupils are encouraged to learn a musical instrument and currently there are over one hundred pupils taking individual music lessons which include voice/singing and vocal technique, pop song and musical theatre performance tuition, piano, trumpet, French Horn, trombone, violin, viola, cello, guitar, flute, clarinet, saxophone, percussion and drums as well as tin whistle, Irish flute and Irish traditional fiddle.

Academically and practically, Music is provided throughout the school from Year 8 to GCSE, AS and A2 levels.

In the third term, the Music Department presents its ‘Music Week’ which will involve members of the Ulster orchestra coming to the school to give workshops on performance and expressive skills in Music and a class will be going to attend an Ulster Orchestra rehearsal in the Ulster Hall. This will culminate in the Spring Concert which is held in the school in April.

The Music Department works with other departments, especially with Drama in the promotion of performing arts throughout the school.